The Execution of al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ—may Allah curse them

Ibn Isḥāq relates:
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached al-Ṣafrāʾ, al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith was put to death. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib carried out the execution, as I was informed by certain scholars of Mecca. The Prophet then moved on, and when he arrived at ʿIrq al-Ẓabiyah he ordered the execution of ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ.

Ibn Isḥāq continues: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded that ʿUqbah be killed, ʿUqbah said, “Muhammad, who will look after my children?” He answered, “The Fire.” The man who carried out the sentence was ʿĀṣim ibn Thābit ibn Abī al-Aqlah of the clan of Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf, as related to me by Abū ʿUbaydah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir. Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah says the same in his al-Maghāzī, and he maintains that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ executed no other prisoner besides him.

When ʿĀṣim approached to strike him, ʿUqbah cried out, “People of Quraysh, why am I singled out to be killed while the others remain alive?” ʿĀṣim replied, “Because of your enmity toward Allah and His Messenger.”

Ḥammād ibn Salamah, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib from al-Shaʿbī, reports: When the Prophet ordered ʿUqbah’s execution, ʿUqbah said, “Will you kill me, Muḥammad, while sparing the rest of Quraysh?” He replied, “Yes! Do you know what this man did to me? I was prostrating behind the Station [of Abraham] when he placed his foot on my neck and pressed it until I thought my eyes would pop out. On another occasion he brought a sheep’s placenta and threw it on my head while I was in prostration, and Fāṭimah came and washed it off my head.”

Ibn Hishām adds: Some say that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the one who killed ʿUqbah, as related by al-Zuhrī and others among the scholars.

I say: These two men were among the worst of Allah’s creatures—most steeped in disbelief, obstinacy, aggression, envy, and scornful lampooning of Islam and its people. May Allah curse them, and so He has.

Ibn Hishām also recounts that Qutaylah bint al-Ḥārith, sister of al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith, composed the following elegy for her brother:

O rider, if Athīl is indeed the rendezvous,
Then at dawn on the fifth day you shall succeed.
Bear to a dead man greetings that still endure—
Greetings that set noble she-camels’ banners a-flutter.